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Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Hunting the Elusive Mild Ale

For this book project that still cannot be named, I'll be discussing style. I've lately been looking into mild ales, a beer with very little presence in the US. The only milds I've seen brewed in the Northwest came from Brewers Union--which, despite its many virtues, doesn't get, ah, broad distribution. Maybe you can help.

Can you point me to any American mild ales, particularly ones brewed either seasonally or (best case) as a part of a brewery's regular line? I don't expect to find any, but bottled examples would be especially useful.

Do you know of any examples imported to the US?

I'm looking for more traditional modern examples. I know the style has a fair amount of latitude, but I'd like to locate some that are more typical--probably dark, definitely low-alcohol, probably not very hoppy. But let's not start with the narrow end of the funnel. I'll start with anything.

This may not help, but a nano brewery here in middle Missouri still in search of funding will be brewing a mild in their regular lineup. Like I said, this info may not help now, but it might in the near future. Check out Hellbender Brewing in Columbia, MO.

My local brewpub, St. Elias Brewing Company, has made a Mild as a summer seasonal. Here's the blurb from their website:

Marathon Mild

Mild has deep roots in English brewing history. It became the common drink amongst early Welsh coal miners and steel workers, being tagged the

ale of the working class. Mild ale is thought to be one of the “three threads,” where early pub owners would mix mild ale, pale ale and old ale to make what we now know as porter. Marathon Mild is a tribute to the blue collar workers of the defunct Marathon Motor Works Company in Nashville, TN, where Marathon cars were produced from 1911-1914. Our brewer worked at Yazoo Brewing Company, which was nestled in this historic factory. Marathon Mild is light in body, with a rich caramel, dark fruit, finish. The hops play a background role in this beer, serving just to balance. This “session beer” weighs in at 3.88% ABV.

Utah has two breweries that make English Mild's, Red Rock Brewing Co. and Desert Edge Brewpub. Neither are bottled, sadly. I was actually surprised more didn't because tap beers are low-alcohol (4.0 abv) and milds seem like a natural fit for a Utah brewery.

Jester King Brewery here in Austin, TX has a Oaked Dark Mild that is full of flavor and is one of their regular beers. They don't bottle it but it is on plenty of taps around town and in Dallas and Houston. It comes in at 3.5%.

Description from the website: A true “session beer”, Commercial Suicide is an authentic English dark mild with notes of caramel, coffee and chocolate. A portion of each batch is aged in medium toast American oak barrels, lending very subtle toasted, oaky notes to the finished beer.

British Columbia had a very good mild called Shaftesbury Cream Ale. It got purchased by a macro and now is a shell of it's former self.

Also interesting is that the marketers called it a cream ale because they didn't think the public would go for something called mild. Because of the beer's subsequent success, you will frequently get a mild, or something similar to a mild, when you order a cream ale in this part of Canada.

I realize we're not quite North-West, but in Toronto, Cheshire Valley (http://www.cheshirevalleybrewing.com/)makes a mild, proper. Paul is a known master of English styles around here. Ralph at Volo (http://www.barvolo.com/) is also brewing milds in his line of house ales. None in bottles though, sorry.